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Can you rent automatics in the UK, and how hard is it to adjust to left side driving?
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May 9, 2014 13:39
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Goodpancakes posted:Can you rent automatics in the UK, and how hard is it to adjust to left side driving? I rented a (manual) car in Scotland in the middle of Edinborough, so my first moments of left side driving were in city conditions where I had no idea of my way around. It was not bad at all, actually. What I found to be a little challenging was adjusting to lining myself up to proper side of the car in front of me (by instinct I want to line myself up with the left side of the car in front, but in the UK it's the right side you need to align with, if you understand what I am trying to say). Also, driving around in parking lots was trouble because I'd always unconsciously revert to right side rules after a few turns and other drivers probably thought I was being a goofy jerk. At the place where I rented my car, they had automatics available. I rented at the last second and all they had left were automatics the one manual that I took. You can easily book ahead with whoever is near where you'll be and make sure you can get what you want.
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May 9, 2014 14:01
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Goodpancakes posted:Can you rent automatics in the UK, and how hard is it to adjust to left side driving? Autos seem to be more common with rental companies than with buyers. If you ask for an auto when booking then you can get one no problem. If you don't ask then you'll randomly get a manual or auto depending on what they have. They might not have every single type of car in both manual and auto though - usually mid/large cars only, vans and small cars are almost always manual only. Sweevo fucked around with this message at 20:19 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 15:13
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If it is a issue for you you should probably learn to drive.
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May 9, 2014 18:29
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It's way easier to learn to drive on the other side of the road in the city; you're never going to just turn into oncoming traffic, you're going to follow everyone else. It's harder in the country but just pay attention and you'll be fine.
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May 9, 2014 20:51
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Does anyone know about super nice villages in Switzerland? I'm arriving in Geneva August 8th and have until the 12th to do whatever. Castles are good, as are villages like Gimmelwald. Basically nice scenery is what I'm after. On the 12th I have to end up in Visp/Saas Fee, so anything in the western part of the country is better, but I'm not opposed to going east to see awesome stuff.
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May 9, 2014 21:30
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HookShot posted:Does anyone know about super nice villages in Switzerland? I'm arriving in Geneva August 8th and have until the 12th to do whatever. Castles are good, as are villages like Gimmelwald. Basically nice scenery is what I'm after. On the 12th I have to end up in Visp/Saas Fee, so anything in the western part of the country is better, but I'm not opposed to going east to see awesome stuff. Here are some suggestions while you're in the Geneva area from Aug 8 to Aug 12, in order of preference. All within 1 hour of Geneva by train. I would not rent a car for the 8th--12th part of your trip. How long are you up near Saas Fee? Idea 0: • Geneva. It will take ~6 hours to do literally everything on TripAdvisor listed for Geneva. Go up church tower, see Calvin's lovely chair, see a jet of water, see a flower clock, be disappointed. Go to Red Cross or Patek Philippe Museum if you care. • CERN. I haven't been, but friends have told me it's rather underwhelming if you're already a scientist or have toured around science facilities before. You don't get to like go down and check out the particle accelerator or anything particularly amazing. They have VERY RARE tours that actually go down to the accelerator and I don't know anyone who's done this (but it sounds awesome). If you're not a scientist then seeing laboratories is probably cooler. Idea 1: • Lutry and the entire Lavaux region (area between Lausanne and Vevey). Recommended: talking the train to Lutry and walking through the vineyards up through Grandvaux and Epesses. Get some wine in a cave ("cahve") in Epesses, which has great wine for the region. Take the train back. Alternately if you have the car, you can just drive to Lutry then do a loop walking. This is a protected UNESCO world heritage site. Don't miss it. It's stunning. Idea 2: • Morges. Less interesting but closer and more accessible. "Cute". Has a market some days (Saturday and ... Wednesday morning? can't remember. lived there for two years too). Can do together by walking up to first: • Tolochenaz: Audrey Hepburn is buried near a parking lot here, then continue your walk up towards: • Vufflens-le-Chateau: Nearby picturesque castle. You can't visit but IMO it's the nicest looking castle in all of Romandie (sorry Chillon). Idea 3: • Chamonix: Go to Chamonix, take the lift up the Aiguille du Midi. Fariylexpensive but a stunning view if the weather's there. Within spitting distance of the summit of Mont Blanc. Idea 4: • Montreux: Skip it unless you want to see Castle Chillon (which is moderately interesting and definitely the best visitable castle in Switzerland outside of Ticino). Otherwise walk through the Montreux lake side on the way to Chillon (~30 min) rather than taking the train from Montreux to Chillon. Idea 5: • Evian. To be honest I don't really think Evian is that interesting, but hey you can fill your water from La Source there, plus it's a nice (though very expensive) boat ride from Geneva. Or you could take the train or drive. Thonons-les-Bains is nearby but also not that interesting. The French side is much less interesting and FAR less picturesque than the Swiss side (since you can't see the Alps, and the Jura are much, much less impressive, especially in August when their snowcap is gone). Idea 6: • Annecy. Not sure why anyone likes Annecy all that much. I guess it would be nice if there was not a way more scenic lake nearby. Idea 7: • Lyon. If you really want to see a big city, Lyon is nearby and is moderately interesting. Then there are some places a bit further: • Gruyere: Home of Gruyeres cheese. Not convenient at all to get to by public transit. Can also visit the Cailler chocolate factory (pretty much the only one in Switzerland you can visit). Both are moderately interesting, but need a car to do both. They're like a 10 minute drive apart, or like 60 minutes by public transit. • Bern: I love Bern and have spent quite a bit of time there, but have no particular recommendations. I go about once a month and in fact I don't think I've ever "done" anything. It is absolutely not worth the round-trip travel time from Geneva, but if you're going that way for some other reason it's worth a stop. • Eastern Switzerland: Too far for your itinerary. It's certainly feasible, but there's a lot of cool stuff near Geneva, and if you've never been in the area, just check it out. There's easily ~5 days of striking and different stuff to do or see near Geneva. E: I live in Lausanne, and I'd be up for being your tour guide for the 9th or 10th of Aug if you want to go to Lavaux. I'm 95% sure I'll be around that weekend. PM me or something if hiking in vineyards and drinking wine is up your alley. Saladman fucked around with this message at 22:18 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 22:09
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Saladman posted:Here are some suggestions while you're in the Geneva area from Aug 8 to Aug 12, in order of preference. All within 1 hour of Geneva by train. I would not rent a car for the 8th--12th part of your trip. How long are you up near Saas Fee? Also my uncle lives in Annecy haha. His apartment has a view of the lake though so it's pretty good. I really like ideas 1 and 2 (I've been to France sooooo much and the last time I was in Switzerland I was like four, so I'm going to really explore that country). Gruyere sounds really cool as well but yeah, the public transport situation seems not too good. Maybe a rental car for a day trip or something, if we have the time, but I doubt it. HookShot fucked around with this message at 22:28 on May 9, 2014 |
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May 9, 2014 22:25
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I think between Montreux and Saas-Fe you can basically go to any village and do a little hiking to get super sweet views from all the great mountains. Should be easy to find something nice! Also I'm super jealous for the 2 week ski camp in the middle of loving summer. 
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May 10, 2014 00:26
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elbkaida posted:I think between Montreux and Saas-Fe you can basically go to any village and do a little hiking to get super sweet views from all the great mountains. Should be easy to find something nice! Also I'm super jealous for the 2 week ski camp in the middle of loving summer. Cool, thanks, yeah I'd like to do that ideally. Looking at Lutry it looks really nice. Summer race camps are awesome for sure.
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May 10, 2014 03:03
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Oh jesus, I'm moving from Seattle to Bordeaux. I'm still coming to grips with this and it's still scary as hell. I'm at least gonna get my motorcycle license while I'm still in the states and plan for a moto tour in Europe.
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May 10, 2014 05:43
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HookShot posted:Sweet, thanks so much!! I booked Montreaux, my husband LOVES castles and since it's only like an hour by direct train from GVA that's pretty much perfect for our first night. We were definitely not going to rent a car, and I'll be in Saas Fee from the 12th to the 25th. I'll be super busy that entire time though basically (ski racing camp on the glacier), and then afterwards I'm thinking of going down to Zermatt and taking the Glacier Express to St Moritz, and making my way to Slovenia from there. I wasn't sure if you already had a hotel and were spending all the nights 8--12th in Geneva? Otherwise there's definitely way more flexibility and things to do in Switzerland. Also plenty of nice places to hike, but if you're going to be on the Dom Glacier (or wherever) for two weeks then you'll probably get your fill of mountains. Annecy's lovely—I guess you've been?—it's just hard to recommend in a strict comparison against Lake Geneva and the Arc Lemanique. There's a castle near Annecy too ( http://chateau-de-menthon.com/en/index.php ) that does visits. I've never been to the castle but it gets decent tripadvisor reviews.
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May 10, 2014 07:37
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Saladman posted:I wasn't sure if you already had a hotel and were spending all the nights 8--12th in Geneva? Otherwise there's definitely way more flexibility and things to do in Switzerland. Also plenty of nice places to hike, but if you're going to be on the Dom Glacier (or wherever) for two weeks then you'll probably get your fill of mountains. The only hotel I actually booked was 2 nights in Montreux after your post (the first night is a write off, we land in GVA at 5:30pm and will be jet lagged as poo poo) and it's refundable, so no, I'm not solidly booked anywhere. I've actually never been to Annecy (closest I've been is Lyon), last time I saw that uncle he lived in Paris, but yeah, I know exactly what you mean about it being nice but there being tons of nicer stuff closer. I'm just laughing a bit because my mom went to see him last year and couldn't stop raving about how nice it was and in my head I was going "uhh surely there's nicer around?" But yeah, either way I'd like to spend the time in Switzerland itself. I'm thinking you're right about the fill of mountains. I think after the trip I'm going to go to Zermatt for a day, then do the Glacier Express to St. Moritz, so mountains should be pretty well covered. I mean, I live in Whistler, so it's not like I've never seen one, either, although I recognize that the alps are completely different. Looking at Lutry I really, really like the looks of that area.
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May 10, 2014 08:27
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HookShot posted:Looking at Lutry I really, really like the looks of that area. It will be grape season too! Since you're not tied down to Geneva, here are a couple more suggestions then in no particular order. (Now that I think about it, I've spent more than half my adult life in Switzerland now. Terrifying.) • Interlaken area: Mostly just a base for the mountains in the area. If you want to do sky diving or whatever then this is the place. • Lucerne area: Lucerne is pleasant enough, but like most Swiss cities doesn't really have any particular 'to see' thing. Actually I guess the only monument in the entire country is the Matterhorn. If you go here, I'd recommend to hike The Swiss Path ( http://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/the-swiss-way-the-ruetli-meadow-brunnen.html ) It's an easy day walk and there are plenty of little towns to stop in. • Ticino: My favorite part of Switzerland after the Arc Lemanique. If money is remotely a concern, then I would actually recommend staying on the "Italian side" of Ticino, like either Lake Como (skip the city of Como; Bellagio or Menaggio are 100x nicer) or Menaggio (e.g. Verbania). I actually haven't spent much time at Lake Menaggio, but am spending the week after next in Ascona, so I guess I'll find out. The Three Castles of Bellenzona ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Castles_of_Bellinzona ) are by far the largest and most impressive castles in Switzerland. • Liechtenstein: Super boring and doesn't sound like you'll be in the area. • Zurich: Unless you're jonesing for an art museum or something I wouldn't really recommend Zurich. Unfortunately you're just missing the Zurich Street Parade (2 August) which is an absolute shitfest every year and wild and so un-Swiss. • Bern/Neuchatel/Fribourg: All nice places to hang out, can't really recommend any for a tourist on limited time. I usually take guests to Fribourg when we go to the cheese factory and chocolate factory nearby, but otherwise it's not really worth the distance. It's mildly notable for being one of just a couple actually-bilingual cities in Switzerland, the Canton of Fribourg and Canton of Valais being the only really multilingual cantons. • Taking the Glacier Express should be really neat. I haven't done it but really should. Once you get to St Moritz, there's not much there as I guess you might expect, especially coming from Saas Fee. All the "wealthy foreigner" ski towns (St Moritz, Davos, Saas Fee, Zermatt, Gstaad, Verbier) are essentially identical, and I actually like Saas Fee the most of all of them, although Zermatt has the Matterhorn going for it. You can buy a $12000 mink fur coat while it's convenient. Anyway I guess after writing this up my #1 recommendation here would be to go to Bellinzona and then onto Menaggio/Bellagio. I don't know how your time is though. It could make sense to take the Glacier Express just to Chur, then train down to Bellinzona, but you might not have enough time after Saas Fee to do that.
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May 10, 2014 09:19
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Leaving for Geneva in about two hours, routing through Singapore and Helsinki. Gaining ten hours. All this Swiss talk is great. We are staying in the Hotel Geneva Residence in Annemasse. Any recommendations for the French side of town.?
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May 10, 2014 22:13
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Kommando posted:Leaving for Geneva in about two hours, routing through Singapore and Helsinki. Gaining ten hours. All this Swiss talk is great. We are staying in the Hotel Geneva Residence in Annemasse. The French side is pretty much exclusively used for cheap(er) shopping, cheap dentists, and cheap(er) housing. As far as I know there's not much to "do" there; Annemasse is essentially just a big residential neighborhood attached to Geneva.
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May 11, 2014 08:27
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I'm about to book a trip to Barcelona and have a couple of questions: 1) I plan on going for 10 days. A friend of mine who has been there before said she thinks that's too long to stay just in Barcelona and thinks I should try taking the train around to other places. Is this true? Is 10 days too much time for just Barcelona? 2) I plan on going June 13th. Realistically, how hot can I expect it to be? I usually have a problem in the heat and am wonder how miserable it will be walking around during the day. Are the nights hot? 3) Is there a central area I should get a hotel in? My friend and I are both interested in sight seeing, but are also interested in the night life and would like to go out a lot. Are there any areas that are better to stay than others as far as going out at night goes?
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May 12, 2014 21:17
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idontcare posted:1) I plan on going for 10 days. A friend of mine who has been there before said she thinks that's too long to stay just in Barcelona and thinks I should try taking the train around to other places. Is this true? Is 10 days too much time for just Barcelona? quote:2) I plan on going June 13th. Realistically, how hot can I expect it to be? I usually have a problem in the heat and am wonder how miserable it will be walking around during the day. Are the nights hot? quote:3) Is there a central area I should get a hotel in? My friend and I are both interested in sight seeing, but are also interested in the night life and would like to go out a lot. Are there any areas that are better to stay than others as far as going out at night goes?
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May 12, 2014 22:30
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 I NEED SOME REAL HELP. After a long rear end day of travelling, I left my passport in my seatback pocket on Finnair. I have my flight number, seat number and I'm at my destination. But noone I call seems to care. According to Geneva airport and finnair any lost property gets sent to Finland, but no one will go look for it in the plane they just assume it will be found and handed in. And short of calling them every day for the next week they have no advice. What do.
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May 13, 2014 14:02
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When do you need your passport next? If you don't need it right now just have them send it back to you.
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May 13, 2014 14:09
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I cant get them to look in the plane let alone send it to me. The Australian consul has advised me to go to the Finnair desk at Geneva Airport and get someone to care. A voice on the phone is easy to dismiss, an upset tourist in front of you is less so. Otherwise i can get an emergency passport in 48 hrs. But it will cost a lot. I'd rather get my real one back.
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May 13, 2014 15:40
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Goods news: your passport will most likely be found, and if it is found, they can mail it to you. Bad news: this may take a few days, and may involve dealing with more Finnish customer service people. Finnair's (and a bunch of other airlines) lost and found items are handled by an outside company, and Finnair operates on the assumption that if something has been forgotten in the plane cabin, it will be found by staff when cleaning the plane between flights and handed over to the lost and found company. Depending on how soon you need your passport, you can either bug Finnair customer service until they go around their usual system and help you, or you can contact the lost and found company directly to make an inquiry either online (online requests are processed 1-2 times a week, and stay active for three weeks, cost 5€) or on phone (see same poorly translated website, costs more, but they'll check immediately). It may take a couple of days for your passport to go from a seat pocket in Switzerland to an office in Finland, but unless someone grabbed an extra passport with them, it will end up there. Waci fucked around with this message at 17:17 on May 13, 2014 |
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May 13, 2014 17:11
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Cool, well i've got 10 more days before i'll need it to get home.
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May 13, 2014 17:31
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Hmm. I've tried using the website but right after I provide it credit card details, I get a dead page/page not found error.
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May 14, 2014 05:15
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I got it back. It turned up at the airport police station.
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May 14, 2014 13:56
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Has anyone got some advice for Athens? I have 4 days there and other than the obvious attractions like the various Greek ruins etc I dont really know what to go see.
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May 15, 2014 17:02
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Here's one for you guys. So I've been living in Malta for the past 8 months now and its been an absolute blast. One of the best times of my life. Unfortunately, as a US citizen, I've never really acclimated myself to the use of 'a lot of coins.' Tons of coinage just breaks my balls (and christ the 1 and 2 euro cents are smaller than a baby's nostril), so naturally I've just dropped the remaining coins from a days worth of spending into a jar and continued on with my life. This habit has now come back to bite me... The local banks will do nothing for me. Its bad enough they have to sift through the coins of an account holder, why should they help an unwitting foreign resident? I'm leaving in about a month and a half, but I'll be flying up to Italy to spend a few weeks there first. Problem is that bag's heavy and I'm hesitant to toss it in a suitcase in hopes of finding a sorting machine up north. I've asked around and they don't have any sort of coinstar-like machines anywhere on the island. Do I bite the bullet and just throw it at currency exchange? Establish a bank account? I've got time to think on this, sure, but I'd love to get this problem out of my way asap.
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May 15, 2014 22:36
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Ask somebody you know to bring it to the bank? Or just go and spend it somewhere, it's not very nice but you'll get rid of it. Donate it to a church or to beggars or whoever. Get a parking ticket or similar and pay it in 2 cent coins...the possibilities are endless!
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May 15, 2014 23:10
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Help! Help! I've accepted a job in Bordeaux and I'll need to figure out where I want to live. My job will be located in the Chartrons district, I'm 25 and single and want to be in an urban area with poo poo to do (proximity to a gym and good bars and markets would be nice) and hopefully a short bike commute to work every day. I think I'd like to look at spending around €600/month on rent maximum. A furnished studio would be more than adequate for me. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where in the city I should look?
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May 16, 2014 09:39
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Chips Challenged posted:Here's one for you guys. If you bag it will the bank accept it? I had a pile of about 50 euro in small coins and I just got a bunch of coin bags from the bank and bagged them up using an electronic scale once I'd done a bag of each denomination manually and weighed it. Only took about an hour after that to do the rest of the coins.
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May 16, 2014 09:59
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Pookah posted:If you bag it will the bank accept it? I had a pile of about 50 euro in small coins and I just got a bunch of coin bags from the bank and bagged them up using an electronic scale once I'd done a bag of each denomination manually and weighed it. Only took about an hour after that to do the rest of the coins. Yeah, I think this is probably the best solution of any. I've hooked up with a local friend of mine who has an account and we'll work through him. My roommates and I will just pool our change and get it out of the way. Thanks for the help guys.
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May 16, 2014 15:31
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I just stumbled across something randomly that suggested that American credit cards are sometimes not accepted in Europe (specifically England) because they're not chip and pin  . Is that true? Since virtually nobody here in the US issues smart credit cards, I would imagine that in areas regularly flooded with American tourists (London) to refuse such cards would be pretty weird, but I wonder.
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May 16, 2014 15:38
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emfive posted:I just stumbled across something randomly that suggested that American credit cards are sometimes not accepted in Europe (specifically England) because they're not chip and pin Every place that takes chip&pin also takes magstrip cards, with the exception of some vending machines and maybe some other edge cases. Some young cashiers might try to stick your card into the chip reader part and you will have to tell them it's a swipe card but that's about the most drama it will be.
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May 16, 2014 15:47
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ok cool thanks.
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May 16, 2014 16:09
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In the Netherlands the magstrip cards have been basically phased out for security reasons, and I thought it was the same in much of western Europe by now?
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May 16, 2014 18:46
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So I just bought my interrail pass for my backpacking trip this summer. I know that we can't use them from our registered home nation (Germany), and that overnight or sleeper cars require extra reservations: should we be booking our trip legs that begin and end in Germany now, or would it be relatively easy to buy tickets once we arrive? Specifically, we are going from Berlin to Wroclaw a few days after we fly in.
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May 16, 2014 19:12
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You can book them after you arrive.
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May 16, 2014 19:41
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Entropist posted:In the Netherlands the magstrip cards have been basically phased out for security reasons, and I thought it was the same in much of western Europe by now? In Italy and Switzerland at least you can still typically use them. The only places here that REALLY do not accept them are automated machines, like for buying railroad tickets, or for buying gasoline when the inside of the station is closed. Both usually (but not always) have an option to use cash/coins instead.
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May 16, 2014 20:03
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Will be moving to Madrid in July. What are some decent barrios that are somewhat central but not too expensive? How is Lavapiés?
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May 16, 2014 20:51
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Going to be going to Paris in August for about 3 weeks, with a 3 or 4 day side tour to London. I've been to both places before doing the opposite - most time in London and a couple of days in Paris. My friend and I will do touristy poo poo like the Louvre/Eiffel but does anyone have some recommendations for off the beaten path? Maybe some fun bars or the like? We'll be staying in the Marais but we're getting the Visite so getting around will not be difficult.
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May 16, 2014 20:58
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